I was greeted by these blooms when I arrived home from church yesterday:
My First Blooms of the SeasonAztec Gold
Today more blooms have opened:
I expect there will be more blooms tomorrow:
There are more potential blooms waiting in the wings:
And more potential blooms behind those:
Aztec Gold is my favorite. I love it's scent of fresh ripe peaches!
Gorgeous flowers. I cannot believe you already have flowers, my stuff in barely starting to get little nubs (typing w/ envy on my mind..)
Beautiful brugs and plumies! Two of my favorites. Aztec Gold always does seem to be one of the first bloomers in the spring. Lovely!
vossner:
Before you know it, your blooms will come :-) I look forward to seeing them.
Thank you Clare. Believe it or not, my obsession with brugs is waning so what I have is what I'll have, unless I see a spectacular specimen when I attend one of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens' plant sales. However, my love for plumerias has not waned and it takes a great deal of self control not to get out of my car each time I drive past Florida Colors.
LOL, Delecie! I see we are in the same boat! The nice thing about plumerias is that they can stay rootbound and in the same container for a long time whereas brugs need constantly bigger containers and will suffer if you don't give them more and more room to grow. I'm afraid that I am out of room and won't be adding any more brugs or plumerias to my collection until I own my own home. I just repotted my Milk 'N Honey, and because it is such a good bloomer, I gave it my biggest container in my collection. I hope it is happy there for a long time because it isn't going to get a bigger one! Wow, you do have self-control if you can drive past Florida Colors and not get out each time:-)
Gorgeous flowers delecie and your leaves all look so beautiful and healthy too.
Sandy
They look just beautiful Delecie!!
Thank you Sandy. I'm glad the leaves are beautiful now because later on in the rainy season, rust may affect them.
Hi Shelley! Thank you. I hope things are well with you and your plumerias. Here is today's photograph of Aztec Gold:
Aztec gold is my mostest favorite one too! Love the peachy scent!! :-)
My Aztec Gold bloomed this summer but the petals didn't open up like the ones on here. They smelled wonderfully of peaches, though. :-) Anyone have an idea of why they stayed closed?
Judy:
Can you post a photograph of your blooms?
Judy, it might be the heat or direct sun where you are. I think that happens to people in your area sometimes. Are they under a shade cloth or out in full sun?
This is as much as AG opened.
I have two new cuttings of Kanaohe yellow and both are budded, the one is near blooming, and the other has done this! Beats me whats up..must be the heat and the weird weather this year.
Judy, that inflo looks very long and thin and looks like it could be reaching for the light. It should look a little beefier. Is your plumeria in full sun, part sun, or filtered sun? It could be that it is not getting enough light. What are the conditions that you have it in? That will help to determine the problem.
Judy, I just noticed that yours has a stripe on the back. Are you sure it is Aztec Gold? If it is Peachglow Shell, then Shell Plumerias don't open all the way. Here is a link to Aztec Gold: http://www.plumeria101.com/master_gallery/aztec_gold.html It says it has a faint pink edging on the back. Yours looks fairly bright. Here's a picture of Peachglow Shell: http://plumeria.digitaltexas.com/galleries/gallery.asp?action=viewimage&categoryid=&text=peachglow+shell&imageid=365&box=&shownew=
It's under a high eucalyptus tree with an oleander hedge on the west. It gets sun all morning then some dappled sun through part of the afternoon. It does seem to be growing towards the light. Maybe it would like more? The sun here is vicious, though.
I got it from a private party in Florida and was assured that it was Aztec Gold. However, I wouldn't know as I'm not familiar with it. It does have a very strong peach scent.
It has been very hot this year.
Judy, if you can, I would move it into a position where it gets more sun. You can watch for sun burn to the leaves, but I think that might be the problem. Plumerias love sun and hot weather so yours should be fine, but I do understand your concern about sun scorch in your area. I have a feeling that it needs more light, partly because of the way your inflo seems to be thin and stretching. It should be fatter, stockier, and straight. You will probably need to water it more in a more sun position.
Thanks, Clare. I think you may be right that it would enjoy more sun. I had it in kind of a sheltered spot and I guess it was begging to be let out. I hadn't realized that they were such sun-lovers, but that's great.
Judy, they are all over Hawaii, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, etc. -- all very warm climates, but I know you have a super strong sun there in Arizona, and I've heard of people in Arizona using netting to filter out the sun during high intensity hours. You'll have to experiment and let us know what works best.
I moved AZG into more sun. She gets sun now until about 11:30, then just dappled sun off and on for the day. I'm a little afraid to go more than that yet. She was actually only getting sun until about 10:00, though it started early morning.
Judy, there is no harm in doing it in stages. Full sun is considered six hours or more. Plants which have been in mostly shade need to get acclimated at first anyway before being put into a full sun situation.
AG was my very first plumie.. and that hooked me! I love the scent.. how it is always the first one to bloom when I bring it out of dry dock (garage) and has been gracious enough to let me hack on it's wayward limbs to share with others.